The Promise
by FutureStar27
Summary: Takes place after the key. A new order member comes to the Guard that Lorian finds shady. What happens when Lorian asks Ethan to get to know her better? Will this new girl cause a strain on Ethan and Rochelle's relationship?
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, so for the first two chapters I decided to leave LLAMAS WILL RULE THE WORLD's author's notes on here just because, the first two chapters are of her creation. SO up until chapter 3 you'll have two different author's author's notes( if that made any sense:P) Anywho! Getting off topic! SO here is the first chapter that was already written.**

**I got this idea from a video series that will be coming on YouTube (if it hasn't already...I saw a preview from it, which is how I know what's going to happen.). You have no idea just how much it pains me to write this, but being an author, I can't deny myself any writing opportunity, no matter how sad or evil it may be. So, I'm just going to shut up and write now. Here goes everything...I hope you guys won't hate me for this. Nobody who died in The Key is dead in this fic. And I mean **_**nobody**_**.**

**The Promise**

**Chapter 1**

**Ethan**

"No, no, you've got it all wrong!" the girl exclaims. "I didn't mean anything by it, I swear!"

"That's exactly what you said last time, Cassie," Lorian says. "How do you expect me and the Tribunal to trust that you won't betray us, given all the evidence we have against you?"

"I don't know!" Cassie replies. "Just please, can't you give me one more chance?"

Lorian sighs. "This is your final chance," he says reluctantly. "You're lucky you have such a useful skill, or you would have been kicked out long before now. Go."

Cassie races out of the room without further prompt. Now it's finally time for what we came here for; the Initiation of a new member of the Guard. At the moment, Arkarian is her Trainer, but I heard that Lorian's going to change that today. Or tonight, however you want to look at it.

Arkarian walks in with the new girl. This is my first time actually seeing her – up until now, all I knew about her is that her name is Katrina. Looking at her, even from the eyes of a guy who has the girl of his dreams, I have to admit that she's quite beautiful. She has waist-length, curly brown hair, and yellow-green eyes. She has a very shy look on her face right now, but I can tell that this isn't her normal demeanor.

Arkarian introduces her as Katrina Adams, then leaves her to sit on her stool, and comes to sit next to me. Rochelle sits on my other side, holding my hand and trying to gage my reaction to Katrina. I look at her briefly, giving her a sincere smile that I hope shows I'm not going to leave her for this new girl, and then return my gaze to the ceremony – for lack of a better word.

The Initiation goes fairly well and uneventfully. The gifts she receives are pretty average, and nothing very unusual happens. Until it's over, that is.

"Oh, Ethan, I'd like to speak to you alone," Lorian says as Rochelle, Arkarian, and I start leaving.

Rochelle looks at me. "We'll wait for you," she says. I smile and turn back into the room. Even the other Tribunal members leave.

"What's up?" I ask, trying to be casual.

Lorian looks at me. "Firstly, I've decided that you should be Katrina's Trainer from now on."

I blink in surprise. "Me? Why? What happened that Arkarian can't Train her anymore?"

"I'm getting to that." He sighs. "Ethan, sit down." I do so. "There's something you should know about your new Apprentice. She's...not exactly new to the whole time travel thing."

"What do you mean? She was already a Guard member?"

"No...not a Guard member."

I blink again. "You want me to Train a former Order member?"

"My suspicions are probably wrong," he says. "For all I know, this could turn out the way Rochelle did; completely fine. But you need to understand something. Katrina was one of the Order's top spies, which means she's good at lying and faking things. I'm not stupid. I won't take her in and let her know all our secrets blindly. Even with Rochelle, I had Arkarian monitoring her at first."

"So why can't Arkarian keep on 'monitoring' Katrina?" I ask.

"Because, since Katrina is a skilled spy, it will take more than careful observation to determine whether or not she's still working for the Order. I need somebody to get close to her, find out if she really has 'seen the light' and joined the Guard simply to help. I can't ask my son to do that."

"So you'd rather make me do it?"

He sighs again. "You know as well as I do that Arkarian has waited for over six centuries to find Isabel. I don't want to rip them apart. I can't do that."

"And yet you have no problem with ripping me and Rochelle apart, when I almost lost her."

"Ethan, it's not like that. If I had a choice, this wouldn't be an issue."

"You could just get Rochelle to put her hands on Katrina's head to figure out if she's a spy." I'm really not liking this plan.

"And risk her losing faith in us if she's not?"

"I'm sure she'd understand why it was necessary."

"Don't you think I've already considered this option, as well as every other possibility? You are one of the Guard's most valuable members. If I could find any other way to make absolute certain Katrina won't betray us, I would use that. But this is the only option I think will work. Will you help the Guard in this?"

I hesitate. If I say yes, my relationship with Rochelle will no doubt crumble. But if I say no, there may not be a Rochelle to have a relationship with. "Fine," I say. "I'll do it."

Lorian smiles. "Thank you, Ethan," he says. "But you have to keep this a secret from everybody, even Rochelle. You and I are the only ones who will know about what you're going to do until you're able to tell me what's going on with her. If everything is fine, and she's not with the Order, that can be the end of that, and you may tell anybody you wish about what happened. If not...we'll cross that bridge if we come to it. One more thing before I let you leave; you must do whatever it takes to earn her trust."

I gulp, not liking the way he says this. "Whatever it takes?"

He nods.

"So, if she was already in the Order, why does she need a Trainer?" I ask.

"It's really just an excuse for you to spend time with her."

Great. This is going to be hell.

**I wrote this out on paper ages ago, and only recently remembered it. I finally got my GoT books back from the friend I lent them to (at the beginning of last year's summer vacation...sheesh) and have started re-reading them while I wait for one of my ****other**** friends to be done with the second book in a new series I've gotten hooked on. I was reading the part in The Named right after Ethan shows Isabel his illusion skill, and I just randomly decided to type this all up. So here I am!**

**Am I sadistic for being excited about this fic? For wanting to torture Ethan and, to a lesser extent, Rochelle? Ah well...it's fun. Review, please! I want to know what you guys think so far!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Holy crap, it's been nearly 2 years...I'm really sorry, everybody, I did ****not**** intend to make you all wait for this long, especially since I'm sure many of you have been getting emails saying I'm writing all this other stuff. My only excuse is that for the longest time after that whole "blah" period was finished (by which I mean the reason I wrote that very depressing author's note which has now been removed from all my fanfics), I didn't really feel like writing much of anything. Then one of my friends got me hooked on the anime "Naruto", and since I caught up to that (in both the anime and the manga) I've been so focused on that world that I found myself only writing for those characters. **

**So why choose now, of all times, to go back to this? Well, I was cleaning up my profile – and my story list – recently, when I came across this story as I tried to decide which fics to keep and delete. I re-read the first (and only, so far) chapter of this, and I was like "Oh my god, I totally remember where I was going with this, and it was going to be amazing! Why in the hell have I not continued before now?" I decided that I absolutely needed to continue, so I then re-read the GoT books to remind myself of how this world operates, as well as remind myself of how the characters interact with one another, and now here I am! Much later than I would've liked to return, but hey, what can ya do, right? It's not like we can go back in time like these lovely characters. XD Anyway, now on to the much awaited second chapter! Yay!**

**Chapter 2**

**Rochelle**

"So, what did he want?" I ask Ethan when he finally comes out of the room.

"Oh, he just said that Arkarian's part in Training the new girl is over, and that now she's going to be my Apprentice."

Arkarian nods. "I thought it would be something like that."

I can tell that there's more Ethan's just not saying. Why do you think he'd hide things from us? I ask Arkarian while the three of us walk around.

_Lorian probably said something that he wanted to keep secret, and asked Ethan not to say anything,_ he replies.

_Yeah, you're probably right. I'm just being paranoid. Again. _I look at Ethan. "Hey, what do you think of the new girl?" I ask.

He grins. "Well, she's pretty. But you know that you're far more beautiful in my eyes."

I have to smile at that. "Come on, tell me the real version, not the version you make up that's designed to make me feel better."

"Fine. She's drop dead gorgeous, but I still say you look better." Then he kisses me – just a short one, but good nonetheless. "Besides," he adds, "you're all mine."

"What would you two say to some leisure time?" Arkarian asks us. "There have been so many missions lately, as well as much drama going on in your lives, that I thought a bit of relaxation would be nice."

"Yeah, that does sound good," I reply. "Ethan?"

"Definitely," he agrees, grinning. "Let's go."

**XXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**Ethan**

When I wake up the next morning, I groan as I remember what I'm going to have to do. Getting close to this Katrina won't be a problem, not with my personality. The hardest part will probably be keeping the whole thing secret from everybody. I sigh and get dressed. When I walk downstairs, Mum is in the kitchen, making breakfast. She smiles as I walk in.

"Got time for some eggs before you go?" she asks me.

"Yeah, sure," I reply and sit down beside Dad, who's reading the paper. He looks up at me.

"Did you have a good sleep?" he asks. He knows I went to Athens last night, and this is his way of asking how it all went. I wonder briefly if Lorian's command to not tell anybody includes Dad, then decide that I'd rather not risk it if it does.

"Yep, it was great," I tell him, smiling.

"That's good," he says, then looks back at his paper. Mum puts a plate of eggs and toast in front of both of us.

"There you boys are," she says. "Now eat up." I eat quickly and then leave for school.

Once I get there, Isabel finds me almost right away. "How'd it go last night?" she asks quietly. I take a quick look around us at all the people.

"Well, I have a new Apprentice," I say as we walk a little ways away from everybody else.

"You do?" she says in surprise. "Who?"

"The new girl," I reply, "Katrina Adams." As if on cue, Katrina walks right up to us, and I see that her brown hair actually has red highlights in it.

"Are you Ethan Roberts?" she asks me, and I nod. She looks relieved. "Okay, good. I was told to come find you, but I wasn't so sure which one you were." She sticks her hand out. "I'm Katrina."

_I know,_ I'm tempted to say, but instead I shake her hand. "Nice to meet you," I say with the most charming smile I can muster. "I'm Ethan, as you've already found out." I make sure that our hands linger for just a moment longer than normal, and I keep my gaze on her eyes. She blushes, but doesn't look away. We stay there, staring at each other, until Isabel clears her throat to remind us that she's still there. Katrina pulls her hand away quickly and stares at her feet, her blush deepening.

"Well...I...erm...I should get going," she says, and rushes off. Once she's gone, Isabel gives me a strange look.

"What was all that about?" she asks. I scratch the back of my head, not looking at her.

"Nothing," I reply, "just introducing myself." Isabel scrutinizes me a little longer, then the morning buzzer sounds, breaking the moment. "We should get to class," I say, and Isabel nods.

"Yeah. Let's go."

_I need to be less obvious around others,_ I think to myself. _If someone suspects that something's up before I can figure out Katrina's loyalties, then I'm dead meat. Especially if that someone is Rochelle._

**XXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**Yes, it's short, and I apologize. I just wanted to get something typed, and show you guys that I still exist, and that I don't intend to abandon you or this fic. I can't promise quick updates, seeing as I'm going into two weeks of performances of my school musical, but updates will **_**definitely**_** come quicker than you had to wait for this chapter. Again, I'm soooo sorry about that. Please forgive me!**

**I apologize if the characters don't seem quite right...it's been so long since I've written them, it might take me a couple chapters to get back into the swing of things. But I'll do my best, don't worry. Now please review and show me that it's worth it to continue this!**


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